[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 86 (Thursday, June 19, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6010-S6011]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMMENDING ALL THOSE ASSISTING THE SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE INQUIRY
INTO HOLOCAUST ASSETS
Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise today to commend all those
assisting in the ongoing Senate Banking Committee Inquiry into
Holocaust Assets.
I must start with the leading role of the World Jewish Congress,
particularly Edgar Bronfman who along with WJC Secretary General Israel
Singer brought this issue to me on December 7, 1995. Their work, along
with that of Elan Steinberg has been a true force to reckon with for
the Swiss banks.
I cannot forget the absolutely invaluable help of Ambassador Stuart
Eizenstat and his very able staff in finding and preparing the
administration's exhaustive report on the subject. Of particular help
has been the work of Judy Barnett. She has fought the tough interagency
battles to establish the truth. State Department Historian Bill Slany
did an incredible job in assembling the report.
I want to also thank the following members of the various departments
of the U.S. Government: Francine Barber, Abby Gilbert, David Joy, Felix
Hernandez, Judy Liberson, Bill McFadden, Eli Rosenbaum, Ruth Van
Heuven, and Barry White.
I hope that I have not left out anyone.
The National Archives at College Park has been nothing less then
amazing. The staff has gone out of their way to provide our researchers
with help, including declassification, record and document locations,
use of their facilities, overall access to the building and records,
and the wisdom, and advice of the gifted archivists. Put all together,
their help was indispensable in establishing, continuing and expanding
the research of the Committee.
Of particular help to our staff and researchers has been that of Greg
Bradshear who compiled the finding aid
[[Page S6011]]
for the various record groups of documents, Calvin Jefferson who has
provided us with every appropriate extension of help with regard to use
of the Textual Reference Room, Clarence Lyons for his help in the
overall effort, Cary Conn for his help in declassifying hundreds of
boxes of documents, and John Taylor for his wisdom and guidance. In
addition to these fine and dedicated people, I would like to thank the
following for their help in our effort: Rich Boylan, Rebecca Collier,
David Giordano, Milt Gustafson, Ken Heger, Marty McGann, Wil Mahoney,
William Deutscher, Robert Coren, Tim Nenninger, David Pfieiffer, Fred
Ramanski, Ken Schlessinger, Amy Schmidt, Donald Singer, Marilyn
Stachelczyk, Carolyn Powell, Dr. Michael Kurz, R. Michael McReynolds,
Peter Jefferies, and Lee Rose.
Again, I hope that I have not left out anyone. I am truly grateful
for their help to my staff and the researchers.
In regard to the researchers, I would like to extend my sincere
thanks to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum for their unwavering
support to the committee by their provision of interns to us for the
research. Of particular help and support, and for which this part of
the project could not have gotten off the ground, I have to thank
Walter Reich and Stan Turesky. Specifically without Stan, we could not
have done the research among many other aspect of this inquiry.
The museum provided the committee with top rate college students to
conduct the research. I would like to thank the following researchers
for their dedicated work: Charles Borden, Rick Crowley, Polly Crozier,
Joshua Cypress, Mary Helen Dupree, Ben Fallon, Aaron Field, David Ganz,
Avi Glazer, Jessica Hammer, Anantha Hans, Miriam Haus, Olivia Joly,
Kelsey Libner, Mary McCleery, Daniel Renna, Adam Sonfield, Hannah
Trooboff, Kevin Vinger, and Brian Wahl.
Hannah Trooboff did excellent work with her research at the various
research archives in and around New York City. She did this research
while attending Columbia University.
Additionally, I would like to thank those who were either volunteers,
interns, or Legislative Fellows in my office who participated in the
research Marc Isser, now a member of my staff was an early member of
the research team and the third person out at the archives to dig
through the records Marc Mazurovsky was extremely helpful in aiding our
effort by pointing us in the right direction and helping us with the
record groups. Sid Zabludoff provided help with particular record group
sources as well.
Moreover, I want to extend particular thanks to the dogged research
of a Legislative Fellow in my office, B.J. Moravek, who was the man who
interviewed and tracked down dozens of survivors, found information
that no one else could have found, and was as dedicated as anyone could
possibly be to obtain the truth about the misdeeds of the Swiss
bankers.
I also want to thank another Legislative Fellow in my office, Brian
Hufker. Brian has been indispensable in translating documents from the
German and French languages and researching for the complicated and
vast amount of detail involved in this inquiry. I am proud to have him
as a member of my staff.
I also have to thank Miriam Kleiman who was literally the first
person in the archives for us researching this subject. She has been
diligent, dedicated, and totally committed to achieving justice for the
victims of the Holocaust, survivors, and heirs who have assets in Swiss
banks. While the term indispensable might be overused, she truly has
been She found the first ``five-star'' documents, and she continues
finding them today as she continues her fine work for this worthy
topic.
In addition, I want to thank Willi Korte, who along with Miriam was
there from the beginning and continues to this day to help in the
cause. Willi has selflessly dedicated his time, efforts, vast knowledge
on the subject, and even his own resources to get to the truth.
My greatest debt of gratitude goes to my legislative director, Gregg
Rickman. Gregg was with me from the very beginning of this inquiry. He
spent countless hours toiling through thousands of pages of
documentation from so many sources. He also worked behind the scenes to
organize four Senate Banking Committee hearings and numerous meetings
with many of the principals involved. There was no institutional
knowledge on this subject when we started. The inquiry evolved through
a painstaking learning process derived from listening to the tragic
recollections of Holocaust victims and their descendants, and
conducting persistent detective work. In the latter Gregg has no equal.
Gregg, I thank you and your wife, Sonia, who made personal sacrifices
to see that some measure of justice is achieved.
Mr. President, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of
these fine people who made the revelations and discoveries of the past
year and more possible. I mean this when I say that they have all made
history. They have contributed to correcting a great injustice and have
tried with all of their might to set history straight. They should be
proud of their work and I know that the claimants and survivors would
agree. For my part, I am immensely proud of their effort and I heartily
congratulate them for their fine work. While there is still a great
amount of work to be done, we could not have gotten even this far
without all of these fine people.
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